Practical Gifts That Don’t Suck

October 21, 2011 by Slug · 10 Comments
Filed under: All Other

The sole purpose of this post can be summed up as crap-avoidance. Every year millions of people get tons of crap whether it be at Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Valentine's Day, or your birthday. To overcome this I will borrow from Oprah and show you a list of Slug's Favorite Things. As a reader of my blog, I'm also sending them all to you for free (just as soon as I make as much money as Oprah!).

Here's some practical gifts that don't suck (and last a LONG time):

CROCS UNISEX BLITZEN CLOG

I wear these Crocs every day. I mean every day. I work from home, and my house is covered in hardwood. Before I had these Crocs it was really hard on my feet. I searched all over before I finally landed on these. I have had them for almost 3 years now, and they still feel great. They're also nice and warm.

HAMMER/SCREWDRIVER

I bought this hammer/screwdriver set about 25 years ago in a hardware store for about $5. At the time I thought it was really cool how all of the screwdrivers nested inside the hammer. I can't believe how cool that still is or how useful this tool has been during my lifetime. From fixing eyeglasses to working on wood projects with my son, I have a tool that works in many areas. This is brass so it'll be around long after you're gone.

NORPRO NONSTICK ANTI-FREEZE ICE CREAM SCOOP

I think I added this ice cream scoop to my wedding registry on a whim. So glad I did. It cuts through hard frozen ice cream and the ice cream never sticks to it. I just rinse it off.

CRAZY CREEK CHAIR

I think I bought my first Crazy Creek Chair about 15 years ago. I still have it. I passed it down to my son when I bought a new one for me! This chair is comfortable, portable, and lasts forever. I use it for camping, sporting events, and outdoor concerts/movies. After you get one, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.

WALL MOUNTED BOTTLE OPENER

I drink beer. And, I hate searching for bottle openers. And, I don't like sending my guests to look for bottle openers. Instead, I have a wall mounted bottle opener right by the trash can. Problem solved. Life is good. So is beer!

WONDERBAR PRY BAR

A handyman came to my house once to work on some projects for the house we just bought. He swore often, and he certainly swore by this tool. The Wonderbar Pry Bar is fabulous for all the things the reviews say. However, it's also great for stuck windows. It's one of the few tools slim enough to slide in, but strong enough to break the seal. If you don't own one, you should.

What about you? Any practical gifts to add to this list? Please let me know!

Tags: gifts

TreasuryDirect Wakes to 21st Century

October 21, 2011 by Slug · 1 Comment
Filed under: Savings

Last night I received the news I've been waiting for at least 5 years. Finally, TreasuryDirect is updating its archaic login process to the modern world. The announcement on their website reads:

Important Notice: To make our customers' experience better, we're updating TreasuryDirect's authentication process. The change will make it easier for you to access your new account.

If you open an account now, we'll send you an access card in about two weeks which you'll use to login. The access card will soon be phased out, so it will only be needed for a short period of time.

The new process replaces the access card with an equally secure method of logging in. So, you may wish to delay opening your account until the new process is in place on or about November 4, 2011.

It's about time. I'm sure this is coming as a result of numerous complaints and the fact that savings bonds will be exclusively sold through TreasuryDirect (& through tax refunds) and no longer at your local bank.

Until this time TreasuryDirect you had to go through a step process that was simply ridiculous. Yes, it was probably secure, but it was so painful to go through that even customers avoided it! The old process involved:

Click whether your account starts with a letter or a number.
Enter your account number.
Using the on-screen keyboard, enter your password by moving the mouse and clicking.
Using the super secret decoder access bingo card we took 2 weeks to send you in the mail enter the numbers or letters associated with this sequence. Again using the onscreen keyboard.

Although I have not seen the updated login process, it will most certainly be an improvement. It's hard to imagine it being any worse! I can only hope that the rest of the website will be overhauled soon as well.

Great to start the day with such good news. Let's hope the transition is seamless.

What about you? Are you rejoicing about this as much as I?

Tags: TreasuryDirect

Primary vs. Secondary Sources in Analysis of Consumer Debt

October 18, 2011 by Slug · Leave a Comment
Filed under: All Other

I'm sure by the title alone you can tell this is going to be one of my most read posts of the year. I expect it will be picked up by most of the blog personal finance aggregators as well. I mean why read 5 Tips for Preparing Your Home for Sale or Yet Another List of Reasons Why Bank of America Sucks when you can delve with me into a 60 page academic article from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York entitled Do We Know What We Owe? A Comparison of Borrower- and Lender-Reported Consumer Debt by Meta Brown, Andrew Haughwout, Donghoon Lee, and Wilbert van der Klaauw.

OK enough with the sarcasm. To be honest, for an academic article, it's really digestible and informative. It's worth reading! It speaks to one of the key questions that arise when considering survey data on personal finance topics: how truthful are these people about what they share? The answer as it turns out is that people seem willing and able to give a pretty accurate picture of their consumer debt, at least in the instrument referenced in this study. The one area where they do a not so good job of representing their debt involves, not surprisingly, credit card balances.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me briefly address the difference between primary and secondary sources. In this case, the primary source of data is Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). This is a survey that is conducted in-person or by phone by the Federal Reserve every 3 years with a large sample of households across the US (sample size in excess of 4,000). The secondary data in this case comes from Equifax who essentially anonymizes about 40 million household credit records quarterly in a database called the Consumer Credit Panel (CCP). Currently, there's about 11 years worth of data. What an awesome dataset!

The gist of the current report shows that after you account for the many differences in sampling and data collection, the consumer debt levels reported in the SCF line up astonishingly well with those in the CCP (except in the area of credit card debt).

The team of researchers do an admirable job of trying to account for the differences including by adjusting for credit card deadbeats like me who use my credit cards for everything to get cashback but never carry a balance. In the SCF study, I would report my balance as $0, but someone like me in the CCP database would show up with a reasonably large balance. Regardless of all their adjustments however it seems that respondents in the SCF under-report their credit card balances by about 1/3 to 1/2. Either by ignorance or intentional omission, this data when self-reported is simply not shown to be as reliable as other debt reporting. All in all though, it made me feel better about survey research or at least about the SCF.

What about you? Have you ever lied on a survey about your debt level? If so, what was your reasoning.

PS A shout out to Dan Ariely whom I used to work for long ago and whose work is cited on page 30.

Tags: Federal Reserve

Sharebuilder $5 Stock Trade

October 17, 2011 by Slug · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Investing

I received an email today from ING Direct Sharebuilder incenting me to download their mobile app.

The deal works like this: Download ShareBuilder's mobile app for iPhone^®, BlackBerry^® or Android^™ then make a trade using the app between today and October 28. Once you execute the trade you'll receive a rebate to offset the cost of the trade in an amount to make the cost 5 bucks. It's a 1 trade deal per account.

The question you have to ask yourself is what price you'd charge them for you to download and set up their app. For me, it's probably not worth it. I just don't trade in the account since I bought stocks for my son.

Tags: Sharebuilder, stock

The Only Gas Card You Need

October 4, 2011 by Slug · 7 Comments
Filed under: Credit Cards

I'm going to make this as clear as I possibly can. The PenFed VISA Platinum Gas / Cash Rewards Card is the only gas card you need. Really, that's the gist of this whole post. I could stop this review here, but I know it's hard to trust a masked man so I guess I'll explain in a bit more detail, but you guys need to be a little more trustworthy OK?

First let me state that this card is a site sponsor. Those who read me regularly know I don't pull punches either way, but I like to be transparent when I'm doing a review.

Next, the details of the card:

5% cashback on gas and ~~1% back on everything else~~ (reduced to .25% on everything else 2/1/12). The everything else portion used to be much better, but over time those rewards have eroded. The gas reward has never changed.
No limits on rewards.
Automatic reward integration. You don't have to enroll in anything or cash in your points or anything like that. No expiration of points. No re-valuation of points. It's straightforward. If I spend $500 on gas this month, then this month's bill is reduced by $25. The rewards are credited every month. AWESOME
No annual fee.
No foreign transaction fees!
~~APR~~ If you read my blog, you don't care what the interest rate is because you don't carry a balance anyway.
Great customer service. I've had this card for years. PenFed offers some of the best customer service on their cards that I've encountered.
Auto-pay You can set the card to auto-pay. Note the payment actually goes through a couple days after the due date, but you are never charged for this. Don't panic. It's just the way their system works.
The only minor pain is that you have to join PenFed by making a one-time donation to one of their affiliated organizations. At this point, that is a simple and painless process that is well worth the rewards you will reap over time.

See? You really don't need any other card for gas than the PenFed VISA Platinum Gas / Cash Rewards Card. So if you don't already have this one in your wallet, I would recommend adding it. It is simply a great credit card.

Tags: cash back, Pentagon Federal Credit Union, rewards